Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/18/2008 - 08:22
Forums
Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

I heard that the icebrakers are not good for open sea because of the construction form.

How about your Oden?

Thanks.

Fri, 12/19/2008 - 10:20

Jeff Peneston

Good design in anything requires an understanding of what you want the device to do.  And, you have to make choices.  I am a canoe instructor and canoe builder and I can tell you that people often me about and debate about the “perfect canoe design”.  It does not exist.  A long canoe (or ship) will cut through open water in efficient straight lines but a whitewater canoe should be short to allow quick turns.  And a compromise may not do very well in either kind of water.The Oden is probably the best (non-nuclear) icebreaker in the world.  It was designed to work in the Baltic sea of coastal Sweden and to slide up onto very thick North polar sea ice.  For the last week it has been excellent in the sea ice of the Amundsen Sea.  However, the rounded bottom and broad, flat, sloped bow that allow the Oden to turn easily in ice and to ride up onto 20 foot thick sea ice made the ship very rocky in rough open seas.  If the ship had a deep, V-shaped hull it would have been less tippy crossing the Drake Passage but that was a small part of the bigger icebreaking mission.  This is the third year in a row that the Oden has traveled the length of the Atlantic Ocean to cross the Drake and reach Antarctica and the 6 weeks that it took to get down here were not very pleasant.  However, the design of this icebreaker is so good that we are now going into parts of the ice-covered ocean that no one has been able to visit before.
Take care, and have fun,
Jeff

Tue, 12/23/2008 - 14:21

Guest

thanks Jeff